I had just started working in the ED. Was a brand new nurse that got thrown into it by desperation. I never got a really good orientation, etc.
I was giving a pt. Demerol/Vistaril combination and pushed the Demerol and then started to give the Vistaril IV. I realized what I was doing and stopped (probably had only gotten a very small amount of it). I went to the director of the ED at the time (a very small, little man ) and told him what happened and asked what I should do. He yelled.
"get the crash cart!!!!!!"
:imbar
While I was passing out, he started to snicker. Of course nothing happened, we filed an incident report, etc. Now that I look back it was hysterical, but at the time all I could think was that I had just killed someone.
I work on the Med/Surge floor at our local hospital and my charge nurse had just answered a call from one of the ER nurses who was looking for tampons (this was about a month into my nursing career so as you can imagine I was pretty green). I piped up "I've got some tampons in my bag want me to take them down there?". Charge nurse begins busting out laughing and I am like "what?".......................................She replies, "they need nasal tampons!!" We laughed so hard we about wet our pants!!
LOL at nasal tampons- I had a patient who had nose bleeds. I remember walking in and thinking "It looks like he has tampons in his nose". Could have saved him a lot of money and told him to go buy some Tampex!
Scariest was about a month and a half, maybe a month ago. Drunk dude, getting aggressive. Needed c-spine, kept trying to get OOB. Warned him several times to stay in bed or he'd be restraind. We did soft restraints first, he saw it as a challenge. I was already en route to get locked restraints when another nurse said "We need to locking restraints". We're applying them. I had the restraint on his leg, but it wasn't attached to the bed yet. I was holding his leg down, when the boy bucks and kicks his leg out- almost kicking me in the stomach (he brushed it with his leg, but didn't get a full on kick)- I was also about 35-36 weeks pregnant :stone .
He was QUICKLY restrained by several nurses after that- I have to say, I love *most* of my coworkers, esp the ones I worked with that night. It amazes me how protective they are.
I had a patient with a foley and IVF running, he was several hours postop. Had confusion and disorientation after general anesthesia. He was asleep on first rounds when I came on 11-7. About an hour later, I heard commotion coming from the room. He had gotten out of bed (double siderails) and managed to pull out his IV and his foley, and was literally spouting blood from his forearm and his member. Blood was everywhere, even on the ceiling of the bathroom. It was very scary, but afterward when we had him back to bed and hooked back up, we all had a good laugh at the first sight of that room with blood flying through the air everywhere!
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
about a quarter of a century ago, i was working in an institution that still had its own diploma nursing program. the students were given their own patient load to manage, and supposedly their instructor was supervising them . . . .
one day, i had a student rush up to me, all atwitter, gasping "susie gave mr. so-and-so's mom in the butt because he's npo, and i don't think she should have." i referred the mess to the instructor -- who was, after all, responsible for the patients the students were caring for. later i found out that susie hadn't given the mom pr -- she'd given it im! i'm really glad i wasn't in charge that day!
one day, i had a student rush up to me, all atwitter, gasping "susie gave mr. so-and-so's mom in the butt because he's npo, and i don't think she should have." i referred the mess to the instructor -- who was, after all, responsible for the patients the students were caring for. later i found out that susie hadn't given the mom pr -- she'd given it im! i'm really glad i wasn't in charge that day!
:uhoh21: whoah!!!!!!!! i was reading that thinking "well, it really couldn't hurt much rectally". but im?????? :imbar whoah!!!!!!
We had a mostly nonresponsive ETOHer brought in, slid over onto the guerney, still fully dressed. I got his shoes off, started pulling the pants off from the foot of the bed. As they came off, I felt something heavy in the pocket so I yanked up and didn't let it hit the floor. Carefully took it out of the pocket, it looked like the cartridge roller thing out of the middle of a Colt revolver, so I handed it off to Security, who didn't know what it was either, it got put here and there and passed around a bit. When the police officer came in, I gave it to him. After he stopped turning white, he asked for a cup of water and very carefully pulled the bullets out and dumped the gunpowder into the water. Turns out it was a percussion type gun, all it needed was to be banged or hit to go off! Had I let it hit the floor all the bullets would have gone up my legs.
my scariest is on assingnment in TN, while working the "whooo hall" where normally abd pain/pelvics go. Well, EMS for some reason brought in a GI Bleed to this area, 32, male,350 lbs pale as a sheet of paper, straight up passed out on me in my arms after i got a 72 systolic bp.
lemme tell you the "whooo hall "is in the total back of the ER at this place. as he passed out in my arms, he also vomited about 2 liters of bright red blood and clots upon arrival( on me in my arms). for only the 2nd time in my career, i yelled " i need help in 13", I had to yell about three times and then another traveler came to help me while we started lines and got him to regain consciousness.
took about 20 minutes for this patient to be moved to a more acute room...........incredible.
thank gawd for travelers! so that was my scariest moment in the ER.
scariest moment in er....hmmm guy mid 40 comes inw/ cp mild with some l arm numbness well we did the standaerd work up iv labs ekg ect ekg boderline maybe slight st depression we had nothing to compare it to. CP better w/ sl nitro so doc orders 5 mic nitro gtt.maybe 5 to 10 min after we start the drip he calls and says he feels funny he is now pale sweating like crazy and all of a sudden passes out and bradys down into the 20"s...oh crap! we stop nitro and doc orders atrpine. pt is now awake pulse is 90 to 100 and now he has severe crushing classic chest pain repeat ekg looks text book for massive MI tombstones and all! Thank god the cath lad was open! he was there in 10 min flat! the cardiolgist shwed me the pics later complete rca and a few others I dont now remember were blocked! I had heard what even low dose nitro could do in a right side MI but till that day had never seen it!
Wierdest, scary thing that ever happened? Couple weeks ago had a guy who was in for CP... on the monitor and all. Suddenly, monitor starts alarming the BAD alarm. Our monitors tend to malfunction at times and alarm the bad alarm for no reason. I went running in, thinking it was a false alarm, as the guy is sitting up in bed asking me why the alarm is going off. Look at the monitor and see V-fib! He was talking to me for about 30 seconds before his eyes rolled back into his head. Shocked once, and he was right as rain again. Bad thing was... this guy was within 15 minutes of being DISCHARGED!!! Wierd wierd situation.
It is NOT ok to give vistaril IV. It is ok to give phenergan IV. my funniest/ scariest thing was when i was asked to help my friend "Find her badge" as she thought she had lost it while helping with post mortem care, and didn't want it lost forever when security took the body. I entered the room and was donning my gloves when I noticed out of the corner of my eye the bag moving up and down. Instead of figuring it out, I thought the body was breathing, and as nursing had pronounced, I was quietly freaking out. However, i was scared to "Save the patient" myself. When my friend who had asked for my help walked in and saw me staring at the body bag, she started giggling. Still I did not figure it out, because she was looking at me, not the body. I haughtily told her as I pointed at the body "THAT is not funny" hoping SHE woud be the one to unzip the bag and "Save the patient" (who wants to unzip the bag of a breathing corpse?) When she did not respond, I ran to the body to heroically uzip the bag, and my other friend sat up and screamed (she was of course in the body bag). Needless to say, i needed to change my scurbs after that.
) and told him what happened and asked what I should do. He yelled.
whoah!!!!!!!! i was reading that thinking "well, it really couldn't hurt much rectally". but im?????? :imbar whoah!!!!!!.thumb.jpg.6eeb2c01c27cfd151d706238b7f6d6b7.jpg){kind=small}
grinnurse, RN
767 Posts
I work on the Med/Surge floor at our local hospital and my charge nurse had just answered a call from one of the ER nurses who was looking for tampons (this was about a month into my nursing career so as you can imagine I was pretty green). I piped up "I've got some tampons in my bag want me to take them down there?". Charge nurse begins busting out laughing and I am like "what?".......................................She replies, "they need nasal tampons!!" We laughed so hard we about wet our pants!!